Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Sets New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $296.58 and last traded at $295.79, with a volume of 226396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $293.06.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $41.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $281.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $276.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total value of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,066,180.70. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,545,528. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,435,012,000 after purchasing an additional 392,270 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $455,789,000 after acquiring an additional 144,599 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments.